Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Your Friends, the TSA

I just got back from two weeks in NH and Boston with my wife and oldest grandson, J. More on that great vacation in later posts but I wanted to relate our experience with the TSA on the return trip.

Our Continental flight out of Boston had mechanical problems (a bad generator control module which takes 5 minutes to replace - if you have a spare!) so after the usual messing around we were re booked on a USAir flight to NOLa. We had to change terminals and go through security again. When we got there we were singled out for the whole search enchilada. The contents of our bags was gone through - in detail. They used the bomb sniffer machine on everything (thank God I hadn't used any of the bags for carrying ammo to the range) and gave us all a pat down - including my 11 year old grandson. (It took all of my self control when they said they wanted to pat down an 11 year old boy.) The biggest item of concern they found was not the butane lighters or book of matches in my wife's purse, but the 3" long cast metal choochoo train pencil sharpener my grandson bought at the Cog Railway on Mt Washington. What was he going to do? Stick the pilot's finger in the thing and twist it?

I thought the whole thing was related to my misfortune of having the same name as someone on the no fly list but the TSA agent told my wife that anytime someones flight is cancelled, for any reason, they are put through the full search. So, sleep well tonight, the TSA is protecting the USA from travelling grandparents and 11 year old boys!